Essilor eyes expansion

Essilor intends to continue to make targeted acquisitions of prescription laboratories and will be launching a new Transitions lens.

The plans were revealed in a report from Essilor's board of directors announcing the financial results for 2007, which saw operating profit rise 9.6 per cent from 2006 to €504.6m. Consolidation of companies acquired by Essilor in 2006 and 2007 - which included the UK independent laboratories Sinclair Optical Services and United Optical - contributed 4 per cent of reported growth.

The positive impact of acquisitions, whose operating expenses were lower than Essilor's, led to a fall in operating expenses of 0.9 points.